


The Dreaded Mary Sue Critique

by Caiti (Caitriona_3)



Series: Caitriona Opines on Fandom [6]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Multi-Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mary Sue, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 05:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitriona_3/pseuds/Caiti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein the author confesses that she hates the term "Mary Sue".  Is anyone surprised?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dreaded Mary Sue Critique

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE NOTE - AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR COMMENTS. IF THEY BECOME TOO COMBATIVE, THE ENTIRE THREAD WILL BE REMOVED. COMBATIVE WILL BE DETERMINED BY AUTHOR.

So today I am giving my opinion on the dreaded **Mary Sue** critique/review!

Gasp!

Oh the horror!

Yeah… Whatever.

Let me sum up my opinion on that and you can skip the rest of this if you would like. “Mary Sue” should be struck from everyone’s vocabulary. I find it a useless review that gives the author nothing and tends to feel more like an attack than a critique. (I know this can apply to male characters, but it is an attack which is most often directed towards females. My basic opinion applies regardless of gender, but I am focusing on the females as they are most often attacked with this criticism.)

(Also I am not saying “DON’T CRITIQUE, OR ELSE”. I will touch on this at the end.)

Ann C. Crispin, author of several Star Trek and Star Wars novels, is quoted as saying, "The term 'Mary Sue' constitutes a put-down, implying that the character so summarily dismissed is not a true character, no matter how well drawn, what sex, species, or degree of individuality."

“When a female character is awesome, when she's the star, when she's the one the story is about, she runs the risk of being called a Mary Sue.” Seanan McGuire, author of the Incryptid series.

“Nobody has to like a girl, fictional or otherwise. But words like 'annoying' or 'Mary Sue' are both used as shorthand for 'girl I want to dismiss.' … I want characters to be flawed and awesome: I want them to be flawesome.” Sarah Rees Brennan, author of the Demon’s Lexicon trilogy.

To quote Zoë Marriott, “When I read reviews, I see the term Mary-Sue used to mean:

1) A female character who is too perfect  
2) A female character who kicks too much butt  
3) A female character who gets her way too easily  
4) A female character who is too powerful  
5) A female character who has too many flaws  
6) A female character who has the wrong flaws  
7) A female character who has no flaws  
8) A female character who is annoying or obnoxious  
9) A female character who is one dimensional or badly written  
10) A female character who is too passive or boring

… It's all so confusing! Except that it isn't. Take another look at the list of complaints against so-called Mary-Sues and you will see one thing all of them have in common. **'A female character.'** ”

Pretty much, it boils down to – an original female character I don’t like. 

(Though Ms. Marriot notes that Mary Sue has been applied to various female characters in published works. She gives a list in her article and these characters could not be more different except in their all being female.)

I am focusing on fanfiction however.

“Mary Sue” has been defined as “an idealized character, often but not necessarily an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment.” Mary Sue’s are considered one-dimensional and often “a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.”

And yet I find it being given to all kinds of female characters across the board. 

Let us say you write a story with a female character, shall we? We’ll call her…Mia Scott. She’s beautiful; she can kick all kinds of ass; she’s got a tragic background involving the loss of family and various horrific forms of torture and mind-control… Hey! Keep going down this road and you might end up with Natasha Romanoff, everyone’s favorite Black Widow! A female character who has graced comic books, books, cartoons, and movies. A female character that has the world clamoring for her own individual movie…which I agree with by the way. I’d love to see that! And yes, she no doubt has been called a “Mary Sue” by _somebody_. Still, if you write a character like her?

I will pretty much guarantee that _your_ character will get critiqued as a “Mary Sue”.

Write a character that is the mirror image of James Kirk, Bruce Wayne, Harry Potter, James Bond, etc. etc. etc. – and then make two changes: their gender and their first name (to match the gender change). Now, how many of those characters would be called a “Mary Sue”? Based on the scattering of comments I’ve seen through years of reading fanfiction? Most of them. 

Yes, you should make your characters real and realistic.

But why is it that female characters are held up to some ideal measure of realism that no one can agree on?

Real/realistic female characters are often dismissed as much as the idealized/unrealistic ones are!

Take one of my favorite characters – Felicity Smoak. She’s beautiful, brainy, and quick to volunteer to help the heroes. She’s got a tendency to babble and says the most oddball things that, in context, could be taken in a very suggestive way – without her meaning it to be suggestive at all. She has a tendency towards short skirts, but is embarrassed by her mother. She loves bright lipstick and gets by with as little exercise as she can. She’s curious and sympathetic. She’s afraid of needles, heights, and kangaroos. She pitches a fit at being put in a position that has nothing to do with her abilities and talents. She loves deeply but also has a tendency towards too quick an infatuation.

Some people call her a “Mary Sue” for being too perfect with only “perfect” flaws.

Others say she needs to learn to kick ass and use a weapon and wear a costume and be a hero.

Seriously? How are they supposed to “fix” her in order to make both sides happy? 

It can’t be done. 

We have unrealistic expectations of these fictional women. Felicity Smoak doesn’t have to don a cape… (Excuse me while I shush my internal Edna Mode voice.) …or turn into some ninja type in order to be a great character. Natasha Romanoff doesn’t have to learn to knit and lose her ragged edges to be a great character. 

Again, I’m not telling you to avoid critiquing characters. God knows there have been some that made me grit my teeth…and stop reading the story, but moving on. I am saying to critique them for something other than their existence or their placement or their interference with your OTP.

If your reason for calling them a “Mary Sue” boils down to:

“I don’t like female characters”  
“I don’t like original characters”  
“I can only see [insert character] with [insert character] and not this person”  
“That’s not my OTP”  
“I think this is a self-insertion”  
“I think this is a wish fulfillment”

Then your review says more about you and your wants then it does about the author and their writing. Don’t bother putting it down in writing.

If you are tempted to slap a “Mary Sue” review on a story, STOP. Put a little more thought and effort into the review. Come up with three to five (or more!) reasons for wanting to critique this character, whatever those reasons may be: their actions, habits, decisions, traits, behaviors, etc. Think about WHY you thought the character bad, unrealistic, or annoying. Explain that. Back up your reasons for believing this character to be badly written with examples from the story.

(By the way, also consider – if you changed the character into a male, would you have the same reaction? If not, reconsider leaving a review. If a male character with all the same traits, behaviors, attitudes, etc. would not turn you off, then it’s the fact that she’s female and that’s a bad reason to critique. You don’t have to like her, but that’s on you – not the author. The reverse of this is also true! If you change the character’s gender and name and don’t get the same feelings about them, then it is not the **character** you dislike.)

Most authors of fanfiction are accommodating folks. They tell you up front if they have original characters and who the pairings will be – if you don’t like either? DON’T READ THE STORY! If you read it after the warning, then you have no right to complain on those grounds. **You were warned!**

On the self-insertion and wish fulfillment criticisms? To be perfectly honest, unless you personally know the author? How the hell do you know? YOU DON’T! YOU CAN’T! Critiquing on those reasons are unrealistic because you have no way to substantiate your points. Character criticism should be based on points you can make and reinforce with examples. If you can’t back up your claim, then don’t put your name in the hat. (I personally don’t have a problem with either of these if the character is well-written - not that I would know...unless the author confesses.)

Make your critique and your review mean something! Help the author by giving them some real meat to consider. Don't be a jerk about a story or a character! If you can't write a review without tripping into 'jerk' territory, then go read a different story. Better yet - write one.

"Screw writing “strong” women. Write interesting women. Write well-rounded women. Write complicated women. Write a woman who kicks ass, write a woman who cowers in a corner. Write a woman who’s desperate for a husband. Write a woman who doesn’t need a man. Write women who cry, women who rant, women who are shy, women who don’t take no shit, women who need validation and women who don’t care what anybody thinks. THEY ARE ALL OKAY, and all those things could exist in THE SAME WOMAN. Women shouldn’t be valued because we are strong, or kick-ass, but because we are people. So don’t focus on writing characters who are strong. Write characters who are people." ~madlori

Zoë Marriott's articles are worth your time - go take a look:  
[YOU CAN STUFF YOUR MARY-SUE WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE](http://thezoe-trope.blogspot.com/2011/08/you-can-stuff-your-mary-sue-where-sun.html)  
[WHAT WOULD MARY SUE DO?](http://thezoe-trope.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-would-mary-sue-do.html)  
[REAL GIRLS, FAKE GIRLS, EVERBODY HATES GIRLS](http://thezoe-trope.blogspot.com/2013/08/real-girls-fake-girls-everbody-hates.html)


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